In the midst of the Covid-19 lockdown of 2020, my friend and photographer Polina Shubkina (Prague, Czechia) and I decided we wanted to create work. We were used to shooting together remotely; we work together annually on an ongoing series called Synchrocity where we schedule and take photographs in tandem across the world. 2020 is different – this year, we were connected by something more global, more catastrophic. Self-quarantining in our own homes for a shared duration, we found we were having a lot of the same internal experiences. Different cities, same anxieties, same restlessness.
We decided on staged self-portraits as the venue for our creative unrest. Both seasoned self-portraitists, it would be an interesting to see how the shared constraints would affect our visual language. I chose colored lights as a means to create mood and alter the space. You can see Polina’s half of the project on her Instagram.
We conversed through the photographs nightly over a period of 20 days. Our only real rule was, “One image a day”. The unspoken rule was, “Don’t overthink.” As a chronic overthinker, that was definitely my biggest challenge – and why this project was best processed with a friend.
The project chronicles the anxieties, claustrophobia, aloofness, and unrest of a self in the midst of a global health and economic crisis.
Featured initially on Instagram, April-May 2020. A selection of images from this series were also featured as part of Fotomoto 22: Home.
